And we’re back with part 2 of our fabulous & instructive exploration of Dutch and Serbian music scenes.
Today we focus on songs dedicated to the homeland, musical candidates for new national anthems. We start in Holland with Jan Cremer (1940), a popular Dutch writer (and less popular painter, journalist and photographer) who is best known for his tumultuous first novel I, Jan Cremer (1964) which is supposedly autobiographical and full of provocative sexual escapades. Entire generations of Dutch adolescents grew up with this prose. Much less known is that Jan Cremer also recorded a 7″ supposed to be an ode to Holland: Oh Nederland. Composed in a carnivalesque fanfare style, it was released in 1966 by record manager Johnny Hoes on his sublabel Ojee, known for folkish tunes with a vulgar twitch.
Als ik hier in den vreemde lig
When I lay down here in foreign lands
met onder mij een mooie vrouw
on top of a beautiful woman
dan denk ik nog steeds rood wit blauw
I still think of red white blue
Oh Nederland, oh Nederland
Oh Netherlands, oh Netherlands
mijn klein koud kaal kolereland
my little cold plain bare shitty country
oh kloteland, oh kloteland
oh damned country, oh damned country
jij lullig rot en stiekem land
you silly nasty and sneaky country
Ik hou van jou en blijf je trouw
I love you and remain faithful to you
mijn Nederland, mijn Nederland
my Netherlands, my Netherlands
Now we turn to Serbia, with an underground formation named Šugavi psi Beografita who reflect on their country’s people and politics with the song Jututunska juhahaha. You might recognize the sunny melody of Una Paloma Blanca by the Dutch band George Baker Selection. It perfectly fits with the rhythm of the poem, which has originally been written down in 1865 (!) by the Serbian poet and notable pot smoker Jovan Jovanović aka Uncle Zmaj (who btw also appeared on the hallucinative 1993 banknote of 500 billion dinars).
By replacing Jutututu with Serbia and Juhahaha with Kosovo, it’s remarkable how the lyrics even after a century and a half are still pretty much applicable to present day’s state of affairs.
U kraljevstvu Jutututu
In the kingdom of Jutututu
Kralj trinajsti Balakaha
King Balakaha the 13th
Obećao svom narodu
Promised to his people
Da će dati juhahaha.
That he’ll give them juhahaha
Samo neka budu verni,
They just need to have confidence
Nek vojuju o svom kruhu,
and mind their own business
Neka ćute i nek žmure,
Keep their mouths shut and let them be half asleep
Nek plaćaju juhuhuhu.
and let them pay juhuhuhu.
Posted by Richard de Boer
